Lobbying is big business Lobbying is one of the most common activities in government. Hundreds of corporations, organizations, and governmental entities hire lobbyists to persuade legislators on issues as wide-ranging as agriculture to healthcare. So far this election cycle, more than $640 million has been committed to lobbying in Texas — that’s twice as much …

Last week, Texas campaign finance reports were released. We’ve cleaned up the data and made it easy to search, so you can see for yourself who’s giving and who’s getting in Texas politics. Here are three surprising headlines to get you started:  Lobbying Dwarfs Everything.  TWICE as much money has been spent on lobbying as …

In Texas politics, the real financial powerhouse is not the money given by individuals and political action committees (PACs) —  it’s lobbying. In fact, in the last election cycle, the money spent on lobbying exceeded all money donated to Texas candidates and PACs by more than $100,000,000.  What might be even more surprising is that …

For the 2020 election cycle (2019 – 2020), more than $107 million in taxpayer dollars is being spent to lobby Austin politicians. With our new Lobbying Data feature, Texans can now see which organizations are hiring lobbyists, who they’re hiring, and how much they’re spending. In addition to pulling back the curtain on lobbying — …

Every election cycle, the donations given to Texas candidates and PACs come under intense scrutiny by media outlets, politicians, and citizens alike. Everyone wants to know who the biggest donors are (it’s always one of our most-viewed pages each cycle) and to speculate whether they are buying influence in Austin. Who gets a lot less …